[ bleep ]. >> hey! >> we need help. >> oh, my god. my god. oh, my god. >> the people who were injured

and killed by those two explosions about 15 seconds apart were watching runners who started the race 26.2 miles down the road in a suburb of boston. the population tripled this morning as it always does on marathon day. this morning, 26,839 runners ascended there with runners and marathon support staff. when they made it to the town of newtown, they encountered what, until today, was considered the worst stretch of the marathon. it's known as heartbreak hill. today, hearts were broken at what is normally the scene of triumph of marathoner's crossing the finish line. we are going to a press conference live at massachusetts general hospital in boston.

>> there's a variety of injuries. probably the most common serious injuries are combined lower extremity injuries, bone injuries, soft tissue injuries. >> are you seeing shrapnel-type injuries? >> yep. >> can you describe it? >> we are seeing a lot of shrapnel injuries, predominantly the lower extremities. >> dr., please describe the scene. can you describe that? >> well, the first patient that came in was probably the most severe. we had three critical patients come in in the first 15 minutes. it was the tip of a huge iceberg. so, i think actually everybo

everybody -- [ inaudible ] >> what is the ages of the victims you are seeing? >> i have that information. yes, we have -- >> how many? >> i can't tell you. >> doctor, can you tell us how many patients you have treated? have any of them been able to communicate what they saw and what they witnessed? are they in a condition to speak to you. >> a number of patients have been able to talk. most of them, we kept it business only. in terms of what affects their clinical condition, precisely. you probably know more than i do about what happened at the scene at this point. another question? [ inaudible question ] >> the hospital treated 29. i have operated on six so far.

>> can you say if any were children? >> five patients were unidentified. have you identified all the patients? >> i don't know if we have identified everyone. some came in identified. >> how many remain in the hospital? >> i don't know. >> questions about family members trying to reach their loved ones and difficulty they may be having. do you have indication if they have been able to reach their loved ones? >> some of them we have, some of them we haven't. some that were unidentified -- some that i personally treated -- i don't know 29 total or eight are in critical condition. >> were they runners or spectators? >> again, i'm not sure. i have not taken care of any runners. of the 29 people -- >> what type of shrapnel are you

seeing? anything in particular? >> no, a lot of small metal debris. some people asked about whether it's b.b.s or parts of bombs. i don't think we are able to say. we don't know if it was placed there intentionally or part of the environment. >> do you think the people that are in critical condition, they are okay? >> they are not looking okay. it's not what critical means. so, it's really too early to say. >> how long will it take before this process will be critical within hours? >> a number of patients require repeat operations tomorrow and serial operations over the next couple days. a lot of the injuries are combined. they are combined with soft tissue and vascular. they have to be approached in a different factor. >> how about eardrums?

are you seeing shattered eardrums? >> we have seen at least one. it's not uncommon with a blast injury. one of the things on my to-do list for tonight for me and the residents is go back around, it can be hard if people are being rushed to the operating room to get examed, to repeat the exams. >> can you give us more information on the hometown? >> no, i'm sorry, i can't. [ inaudible ] >> can you talk about how many will here? >> i can't tell you a previce number. [ inaudible question ] >> i don't know. >> can you give us an age range? >> nobody under 18. the oldest person is 71, i think that's the oldest. >> you are a surgeon, but

still -- >> it's depressing. >> in the course of your career, have you seen anything like this? >> the injuries are not -- not that i've seen this volume of patients come this quickly. >> can you elaborate what you mean by not worldly. it appears these devices may have been i.e.d.-like in nature. you say injuries not worldly. what do you mean? >> any traumatic amputation. daily life even outside this event. >> doctor was this tough on you? i know you are trained for it, but did you think much about what was happening or does it kick in automatically? >> this is work. when this happens, we go to work. >> you talked about injuries.

eight in critical condition, will you elaborate on their condition? >> i'm hesitant to give a rundown on each of the eight one by one by one. again, the dominant injury have been combined complex lower extremity. blood vessels. >> do many of your colleagues have combat medical -- >> one of my partners has been deployed to iraq and afghanistan. i think he's got the most experience with these type of injuries. but, i haven't talked to him directly about that. >> some of the patients mental -- you said it's been business for the most part, but do any of them say anything that gave you a sense of what this experience was like for them? >> no. i mean people, they want help in

this situation. my experience today is not unlike similar circumstances. people are brave, you know. it's a terrible thing and you do what you have to do to try to make it better. some conscious, some unconscious. >> can you describe a little bit about the scene when it first happened? >> we got a series of patients on stretchers, actually none of them with the first wave. some that are very seriously injured. the first few had breathing tubes so they were able to talk. when it kicked off the most severe injuries were the lower extremity injuries. we had three in the first five

or ten minutes. it became clear to us that -- again, like i said, the injuries individually are not -- >> there were six now eight. how did it change? >> i'm not sure how they were classified or when. certainly, there's some patients who may not have been -- >> doctor, earlier your colleague mentioned you were all trained by israeli disaster first responders. how did that help today? >> i was not trained by israeli disaster -- >> we heard governor duva due d

patrick -- have you seen the bright signs in all this? >> with the hospital, everybody likes the occasion. operating room staff, specialists -- we have had as much or more manpower or people power than we could use. i can't speak to the larger scenario although i was asked by the hospital anyone willing to donate blood specifically, it's appreciated. right now, we are okay. if they cannot forget that sentiment over the coming days to weeks, we are going to use a lot of blood with this incident and it will need to be replen h

replenished. >> biohazard residue -- >> to my knowledge, they have not been and not quarantined. >> all non-electric surgeries were put on hold. what is the status now? >> actually, i can't tell you that. i would be surprised if all non-elective surgeries. for our general and emergency service, we did cancel our scheduled cases for tomorrow and we have to sort them out over the next several days. >> did you saw all victims have been identify? >> no, i didn't. i don't have that information. >> have they reached their family members? >> again, i don't know. >> can we expect further information tonight? can we get further updates? >> tomorrow. i'm looking for my public

affairs. the next press conference will be tomorrow. >> do you know if everyone has identified? >> we'll let you know, public affairs is on call 24/7. >> is this a trying night for you and your colleagues? >> it's been a busy day. >> how many hours of surgeries did you do? >> approximately? >> six surgeries, right? how many hours? >> well, i started doing surgery at 8:00 a.m. and i stopped to talk to you. actually, i have to go back. >> can you spell your last name for us? >> fagenholz and first name peter. >> can you identify how we should identify you? >> i'm a trauma surgeon.

>> thanks very much. >> that was dr. peter fagenholz reporting they have 29 patients at mass general as a result of the bombing today. he, himself, who is a trauma surgeon, dr. fagenholz has operated on six of them. no one at the hospital, admitted to the hospital is under the age of 18. the oldest patient he knows to have been admitted is 71 years old. dr. fagenholz has been working all day on surgery and was working all day on surgeries and operations before this event occurred and has been now continuing with that. joining us now is kassidy quinn

bretlor in newton, massachusetts. thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you for having me. i wish it was under better circumstances, obviously, but thank you. >> were you there as a spectator of the marathon? >> i was. i worked downtown and a co-worker was running in the marathon. i went down to the finish line to see him. i realized a couple minutes before the explosions he already finished the race, so i went about 30 feet back behind the finish line to get a perfect picture of the finish line as any photographer wants to do. before i got to take the picture, i heard the loudest noise i have ever heard in my entire life. >> you were on boylston? on which side of the sidewalk? north or south side? >> on the opposite of the bleachers for the viewers. >> okay. so you were just east of the street? >> yeah, i was on boylston

street, about 30 feet east, i would say of the finish line. >> so, right there. did you hear -- what was your experience of the two explosions? >> well, the first explosion happened. when the first explosion happened, i didn't know what to think. obviously, you assume there's only going to be one. then you hear one happen and the ground shook. my legs didn't stop shaking for about two hours after that happened. then you hear the second explosion. you haven't processed the first explosion and the second one happens 15 seconds later. then you realize everything going through my head, this is an attack, it's not an accident. two can't happen within 15 seconds, what do i do, where do i go? how do i contact my family.

craziness. >> what is the first thing you did? >> i was by myself. i was surrounded by thousands of other spectators and runners, but i didn't know anybody anyone around me. i didn't know what to do. i followed other people into a little -- after the educational background explosion, everyone started to go inside everywhere to try to escape what was happening. i went into a little atm bank area to hide out for five minutes and try to compose myself and tried to text my family and boyfriend and tell them i am okay. i ended up tweeting and posting on facebook. it's crazy in social media since the phone lines were shut down, it's the main way people reached their loved ones to say i am okay. >> did you see injured people? >> i did. once i was inside, i got inside the little bank area, i got time to actually process, okay, what is going on and what is going on around me and outside.

i looked outside and saw so much smoke enveloping and saw two people get carried by other people because they couldn't walk. i hope they are okay. they are probably some of the people in the hospital right now. i saw them get carried in front of me, covered in blood. parts of their bodies were blown up and not the way you ever want to see a human being look, ever in your life. >> kassidy, how did you get out of the area? was the -- because they shut down the t at some point, didn't they? >> after i was inside the atm, policemen came in and said you have to get out of here, tough get out of here. they didn't tell us where to go, just get out. get out of the copley square area. i walked over to newbury street, trying to gain my composure and

call people. luckily my office building is a few blocks away. i started walking back to my office. i'm a video blogger, so the blogger in my thought i ought to get video of this. i posted to youtube and started getting footage and taking pictures. if i'm here and i am, thank goodness, i am okay and alive to tell the story and take video of this, i might as well get as much as i can, then get to safety. cassidn quun brettlor, thank you. >> thanks. president obama spoke from the white house briefing room just after 6:00 tonight, about three hours after the explosions. >> i direct the federal government to help state and local authorities to protect our people, increased security as necessary and investigate what happened. i want to reiterate, we will find out who did this and we will hold them accountable.

>> msnbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. chris ten, what is the latest reaction from the white house and the white house staff? >> reporter: well, senior administration officials say the president will continue to be updated on this situation throughout the evening. right now, they are approaching this as an act of terror. i'll read the latest statement. any event with multiple devices as this clearly is is clearly an act of terror and will be approached as an act of terror. a thorough investigation will happen. was this an act of terror carried out by a foreign or do mystic group? you heard president obama make the point of whoever carried this out will be prosecuted to

the fullest extend of the law. the president was made aware of it at 3:00 this afternoon. he extended his thoughts and prayers and to make it clear the federal government will put full resources behind figuring out who did this and helping the community of boston heal. he's been briefed throughout the day by robert muller, the director of the fbi as well as dhs secretary, janet napolitano. he will continue to get updates throughout the evening. there's not a lot of information on who carried out the attacks this evening. they don't know if it was carried out by someone here on u.s. soil or someone abroad. so, that is really the key question they are looking into. again, president obama is looking to monitor this situation into the evening. lawrence? >> thank you. joining me now with the latest on that investigation, nbc news

justice correspondent, pete williams. >> lawrence, good evening. investigators know this attack involved two bombs. what they don't know is whether there were other explosives involved. at least five other packages found on the street were deemed to be suspicious and destroyed by boston police and bomb squad techs. there were many packages to check. people dropped what they were carrying and ran away. we have heard conflicting accounts about whether there were unexploded bombs. some say two other packages were found that contained forms of explosiv explosives, others say there were just the two bombs. that remains unclear. several officials say the bombs that did go off included shrapnel that multiplied the injuries, b.b.s and ball bearingings. they are looking at surveillance

video to see if they can see anyone placing packages at the points where the bombs went off. they described them with crude and less explosive power. they stressed tonight there is no suspect in custody, but they are talking to a 20-year-old saudi man here on a currently valid student visa. he was seen running from the area, but he had serious burns. he's in a hospital and being questioned there. lawrence? >> pete, i have been impressed with the caution and precision of your coverage all day. there have been a lot of different things that passed through the media today that turned out to be rumors and not true or not true at that time. how would you guide us and the media in going forward here and what we should be careful of as we look at these developments? >> well, i think the thing that stands out to me tonight is they really don't have a direction one way or the other as to who did this, whether it was an

individual, whether it was a group. this suggests that nobody they have on their radar right now, whether they are in custody is lighting up the charts for them or seen as a particularly promising lead. of course, you can just be sure that anyone they are questioning they are not only talking to them, but aggressively checking their backgrounds and looking at people they have been in contact with, doing everything they can to get a court order to investigate and search. that is very active. they are looking at all kind of tips coming in. they are looking at pictures they are getting. at the same time, they are moving relatively slowly to analyze the evidence on the scene. it appears now, lawrence, that they won't get down on their hands and knees and do that pain staking gathering up of evidence and forensics until tomorrow. possibly because they are still

concerned about all the packages they have to run down and make sure they are not hazardous and because they want to make sure they have the right people on the scene to do it, experienced bomb technicians who have the misfortune of having looked at these before and know what to look for. >> they are working under the pressure of having sealed off and closed off a vital area of boston, a central business area that they will be under real pressure to reopen as soon as possible. >> they will. but, you know, my sense is they will not jump the gun in any way. they consider it far more important to make sure they gather up every last piece of evidence. remember, it took them awhile. the key evidence in the oklahoma city bombing was an axel with a serial number on it. it's finding that one key thing. you are dealing here with much smaller explosives, so the

pieces are much smaller. knowing, for example, a single piece of evidence. if you find little bits of backpack, that leads you in a certain direction. you look for pictures of people carrying backpacks heading for that scene or, within the time frame before the explosion went off. so, that's the kind of thing that is very important. i'm sure that pressure will be on them. something tells me the city of boston will be more understanding than in other situations to give them the time they need. >> there's probably an unprecedented amount of video and photographic evidence that will eventually be available with all the camera phones, thousands and thousands of camera phones just in those two crucial blocks where all this occurred. how will they possibly, over time, harvest all of that and analyze all of that? >> that would be a happy problem to deal with, if it turns out there is that abundance of

material. one problem that stands out in my mind is people were probably looking in the wrong direction. they are looking in the street, not behind them. so, that may limit the number of cameras that have lenses pointed in the right direction at the right time. they will look at commercial surveillance cameras and government surveillance cameras. yes, we have already known that. they are asking for people to send pictures of stills and video they may have at that time. what they will do is try to match it all up so they can sync it in terms of time. if you have 100 or 200 pieces of video, you try to match it up and end up with hundreds or dozens of views and run it frame by frame and see what pops up. >> thanks so much for joining us tonight. >> you bet.

we are looking at aerial video of boylston street in boston where you can just see bloodstains in that shot, 100 feet above the sidewalk. an amazing puddle of blood on that sidewalk. joining me now from boston, mike barnicle outside massachusetts general hospital. mike, we just had a briefing from surgeon dr. peter fagenholz from mass general. as you and i know, if anything does happen to you in boston, you are lucky if you are close to massachusetts general hospital as 29 of those patients were today that are now in that hospital. mike, what is the feeling there? i've been having trouble imagining what it's like up there in my hometown tonight. >> reporter: well, lawrence, you know the town well. it's a very small town, the area we are talking about where the bombings occurred is a very

small street. boylston street in downtown boston, perhaps the bombings occurred in no more than 100 yards distance. the mood in the city is one of obvious somberness, people are upset about what happened. the day, as you know, patriots' day in boston is a celebration, it's a community celebration. there is no school. it's a holiday for the entire state. children are out of school. this is the start of school vacation week. for years, every patriots' day begins with a red sox game that starts at 11:00 in the morning as it did today and the marathon 26 miles away from boston. they run through a course, pass boston college, down commonwealth avenue on to boylston street to the finish line. it's a community of strangers, lawrence. you know all of this. people from around the world, from around the country gather

to cheer on relatives, friends, sisters, daughters, husbands, what have you. most of the runners after the first 2 1/2 hours -- running to raise awareness of cancer, muscular dystrophy, aids, all sorts of causes. today, there were many people running to honor those lost in newtown, connecticut. several people from newtown were there. then, approximately close to 3:00, two explosions occurred and cast a poll over the bay, over the event. i's a national holiday in the minds of many in massachusetts. i have to tell you, lawrence, you would be proud to be here this evening. there's a resilience in the air as well.

people are strong. they will wake up tomorrow and the sun will come back. the worst among us, whether it's international or domestic terrorism, as we have alluded to, the worst among us arrived this afternoon on boylston street in boston. the best among us were in the multitudes, in far greater numbers than the worst. you saw the human spirit today in boston as you have seen it throughout many cities where terrorist attacks have occurred both abroad and here in this country. people helping people. strangers helping strangers. i talked to one young man, an eyewitness standing in front of lord & taylor. he waited for his girlfriend to conclude the race. the second explosion was 25 yards to his left. he saw people losing limbs, he

saw people, strangers tieing turn kits on people's legs. he saw a man jump on two children to cover them from further blasts that, thankfully, did not a cur. the scene, as you know, is normally one of joy and celebration in a community of spirit. that scene, boylston street, the finish line is unfortunately tonight, a murder scene. >> yeah, mike, you and i both watched that scene so many times over the years, people coming down boylston street. even the ones coming in six hours after the finisher. it's the biggest moment of their lives. thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> reporter: you're welcome. joining me now by phone from boston, new england, jackie bruno who was at the scene of the explosions. you were covering this at the finish line, weren't you?

>> caller: i was covering a different story, a feature, a couple from dallas, texas who was supposed to get married at the boston common at 5:po. we were moving our car when it happened. we were coming out of the parking garage where boylston street is. we were coming out of the parking garage. by lord & taylor, we were facing there. we were coming out and i heard a big boom after we paid. i said what was that? i think we made a joke, a gunshot? right, the race already started. then we heard another one. it was clear something terrible happened. we jumped out of the car. we were about on the street. left the car there for a second to run down. as we were getting out of the car, i noticed a swarm of people running at me with horror on their face. i thought i was going to get trampled. my photographer was amazing.

he went into action and started shooting. we just kind of experienced, along with everybody else, being a reporter, we are able to be more jaded. we are away from the situation. i feel like i experienced it as an eyewitness person there and now reporting on it. it's an interesting situation for me to try to process all of this. basically, what i saw was people strewn about. it's hard to sanitize this for people. i basically saw people with their legs blown off. i saw a woman with her foot missing. i saw blood. i saw a young boy being carried away by the police officer. he had blood all over his face, he wasn't moving. i did see a young boy with blood all over his face being carried away. i was only there for a few minutes before we realized we had to move the car. we weren't sure if there was

another explosion. we went to move the car. we were blocking the way. then we weren't able to get back to the scene right away. it's why i wasn't able to be there any longer than that. that experience i had was horrific, to say the least. we took a picture and video and were able to get it right away. i think i had a view. fortunately and unfortunately, a lot of reporters didn't see. it's something i will never forget. i think i still haven't completely processed. >> i'm wondering, when you got out of that car, you were steps away from where this bomb had gone off, based on what you just described to me. >> caller: right. >> i think some listeners think you were around the corner. it's basically the same spot. >> caller: yeah, it's a wide street. you can see right there. >> as soon as you start moving out of your car, you see people running away, toward you, from

what was that explosion of that bomb. those injured people, are they bloodied people coming toward you? >> caller: most of the people who were injured were on the ground. one guy was at the corner. he had a bloody leg. nothing that seemed extremely traumatic to me until i saw the people on the other side of the street where the bomb went off. that's where the people were missing limbs. i saw one guy with red sneakers on with shoelaces untied. i realized that was not the case. that was actually a guy with legs blown off. one thing that was striking, i grew up here, i am from the area. i reported here my whole life. it's incredible. you love the boston marathon. it's a day of joy. you watch the runners come in. you are excited for them. you can see the joy on their faces.

the runners i saw coming in were horrified by the scene. they were trying to process. they were running in with joy and immediately that changed. they were looking to the left and they saw body parts and people without limbs and a horrific scene that seemed to be out of a movie or a horrific show. i keep thinking of the walking dead. this is stuff we don't see every day in a situation unless you are in a war. that's the kind of injuries we were seeing. it was really traumatic. >> jackie, i want to go through how your mind set changed. i think you described it well. i'm from boston, too. i remember as a kid, i thought i got the day off school because of the boston marathon. in fact, it was patriots day, the holiday we celebrate there. it's not the place where your mind is ready or poised to shift into any kind of negative or kind of crisis coverage. i'm just wondering if you can

kind of replay it in your head, the fractions of seconds where you went from what you were doing, you thought you were covering a marathon and wedding. you went from that to realizing, you are covering a major historic american disaster. >> caller: yeah, we knew it immediately. the kind of carnage we saw, this wasn't something small. some people said early on maybe a manhole blew up. i couldn't imagine a manhole blowing up would cause such a horrific situation. i knew something was bad. because there were two explosions. i didn't realize there was another one down on boylston street. i heard two other explosions. i thought they were in the same area considering the carnage that i saw. that's what i was thinking that moment. now processing this, going back, i wasn't on that side of the street today, but last year i

was right there, you know, going into the restaurants and bars with friends. this is what you do on marathon monday. you want to be at the finish line and on that side of the road. it's the better side to be on. it's where more restaurants and bars are. you are watching it on the television and on the road. you are cheering each and every time somebody comes through. from the early morning on, when the wheelchairs come through, the early participants, you cheer from that moment on. the people are coming in, the end of the pack and you are cheering them on because they need it more than the people in the beginning. this is the kind of day we had. it's also a day where you needed passes to get into the grand stands. you didn't need passes to walk on the sidewalk. it's a free, open area where people go back and forth. it's easy and it's hard to, you know, whether you are in new york or another city, it's hard to navigate a sidewalk and know

whether or not somebody has a bomb. all you need is a sidewalk. when people wonder about security, how do you secure a sidewalk, public and open. that's what happened here. >> knowing that area, i don't know how they could secure any of that. it's as we know, it's a very upscale, commercial neighborhood with higher priced stores. it's a very high end residential neighborhood a couple blocks away there. >> caller: one more thing, lawrence. >> go ahead. >> caller: mentioning the kind of neighborhood, there's tons of stores and restaurants. newbury street is the next street over. when we made it back around 4:00, every single store was closed. it was a ghost town. you know how it is on boston marathon day, it's a zoo, people everywhere. we only found people who weren't

from the area who couldn't get into their hotel rooms. garbage material around them to keep them warm. they were freezing, they had nowhere to go. that was the sad part when i was talking to people. i was asking them, can i give you whatever water i have or can i give you anything. you ran and now you have nowhere to go. >> just to set the stage for people who might have another frame of reference, boylston street is our 5th avenue in boston. the next one over newbury street is like madison avenue, high end fashion. we are showing a map of that area of the city. then over to the north of that, the east of it, the right of the screen, is the tree lined and grass lined commonwealth avenue. it's similar, in a way, to park avenue. it's very much that kind of section of town.

it's always vibrant. it's always alive. those explosions happening even without the marathon there would have hurt a lot of people at anytime of the business day or weekend day for that matter. >> caller: absolutely. the boston marathon volunteers, of course the police and firefighters and first responders and doctors on the scene did wonders. the volunteers volunteer each and every year for this, never imagined they would be in a situation like this, responded in an instant. many people said they were giving them their phone for them to call family members. when you are running a marathon, you don't have anything on you but your clothes. they didn't have the opportunity to call people. the people on the finish line trying to call people to let them know they are okay. the runners trying to get their family members on the finish line. they were really making a difference in connecting families today. they need to be applauded. their bravery was apparent.

they went into action and had an entirely different mission than what they came for. >> jackie bruno, thank you. your reporting has been invaluable here at msnbc thank you. >> caller: thank you very much. >> we'll have more on this breaking story. we'll be right back. i'm telling you right now, the girl back at home would absolutely not have taken a zip line in the jungle. (screams) i'm really glad that girl stayed at home. vo: expedia helps 30 million travelers a month find what they're looking for. one traveler at a time. expedia. find yours.

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task force. it is a criminal investigation that is a potential terrorist investigation. i'm not at liberty to go into details but echoing governor patrick's words, a heightened state of individual lens tonight and tomorrow as we go forwards. >> that was from a news conference held about an hour ago. joining me now, on the phone, is a photographer who was at the scene photographing the marathon. where were you located? >> caller: i was about a half block away. >> a way from the finish line? >> caller: yeah, away from the finish line where the explosion happened. my part of the marathon, who i was shooting had finished. i had gone back to my hotel right outside, next to the medical tent. it was 15 feet from the front

door of the hotel. dropped off my camera, all my equipment, went back to get a bite to eat, to get lunch with the rest of my team. as soon as we sat down, boom, the first explosion went off. >> and what did you do then? >> caller: instantly, i stopped. after the first explosion, i heard it, i felt it through my feet, all the way up to my chest. everyone in the room, everyone outside stopped. it was like a movie. no one knew what to do. no one knew what happened at that moment. it wasn't so much a sense of fear as it was confusion until that second one went off. as soon as the second one went off, whether you knew it was a bomb or not, you knew it was something terrible. instantly, everyone had fear in their heart. people were crying, running, confused. i immediately went outside the restaurant.

i looked and i was at an intersection. i looked in any direction and every street was clogged, full of people running, running in any direction for their life. because there was two bombs, you didn't know if there was going to be a third one. they weren't even next to each other so you didn't know if there was going to be a third one or where it was going to come from. it was just a mass panic of confusion and mayhem. >> and there's a photograph we just showed that you took of the medical tent itself where the ambulances were convening, getting ready to get those patients out of there. what did you do after realizing that this really is two explosions we just heard? >> caller: i made sure that my team was okay and everything was good. we actually left the restaurant immediately, went back to the hotel and just made a head count

to see if there was anything we could do and immediately got locked in our hotel. security and police threw us in. we were basically in a glass box not knowing what to do. i was more scared of being at the fairmont more than anything because the media and the press conference for the athletes and marathon had been happening in that building. >> yeah, that's -- >> caller: scared to be inside. >> that's the big hotel, conventions are held there, very close to the finish line of the marathon. >> caller: it's about 100 feet from the marathon. >> we have reports during the course of the day saying that some hotels had been evacuated, others saying the hotels are in lockdown. what is your experience at the fairmont? >> caller: once i got to the hotel, they asked for my key card. if you got in, you were not coming out. it was like that for hours and

hours. now you can leave, but you can only exit in the way where you are leaving the crime scene. you cannot be hanging around anywhere near that. if you do, they are going to consider you a threat. >> thanks for joining us tonight and thanks for allowing us to use that photograph. >> caller: thank you. >> joining us by phone is taylor who witnessed the bombing. taylor, where were you when this happened? >> caller: i was on the opposite side of the street of the bombing about 75 yards away. so -- >> which bombing, the first or the second? >> caller: um, from the first, i was closer to the second. the second one was only a blaoc and a half away from us. >> did you realize at the sound of the first one what was happening or did you not fully understand until you heard the second one? >> caller: i was facing away from the first one when it went

off. the group that i was with, all of us thought we heard a cannon fire, so we turned our attention. that's what it sounded like. we turned our attention to the finish line. that's when we saw the cloud of smoke. even then, we were sitting there saying what is going on. then within ten seconds of, you know, turning around, we actually saw the second one happen and that's when we kind of started putting things together. >> what did you do after you realized what was happening? >> caller: well, i was with my dad, my brother and my future brother-in-law. my dad actually kind of had us back away from the street a little bit. we were kind of next to a building that had stone pillars that protected us a little bit. a lot of the people in my area just kind of were a little confused and stunned about what was going on. we kind of just stayed in the

area trying to figure out what was happening. then, as more as more people were coming our way, coming away from the explosion, we started kind of putting two and two together and then we started heading back toward mass avenue and away from the explosions. >> taylor, where we seem to be hearing tonight is there were not a lot of injured or bloody people walking around because most of the injuries were below the waist. most of the injuries were to the legs, so people were disabled, if they were injured. so did you see injured people leaving the scene? >> caller: no. i didn't see any injuries what so ever. the only injuries i have seen were via pictures. that is correct. no one who was injured was walking around. thankfully, i didn't see anything. i honestly don't know what i have have done if i saw anything. no, if people were injured, they

were staying where they were. from what i have heard, they would not have been able to walk around at all. >> taylor, i want you to help us tell the story of what this day normally means in boston. your family has a tradition on this day, don't you? >> caller: yes. basically, we have season tickets to the red sox. our tradition is that we go to the red sox game, which is, you know, everyone loves the red sox in boston. it's the heart of the city. then you actually the game ends and you are on comm ave. you cheer on the runners. it's such a happy, go lucky day for the city of boston. it's just everyone is having a blast, you know, when i was a kid, i used to think that i would get school off because of the boston marathon. it was the best day. so, for something like this to

happen, it is just the most terrible feeling. there's nothing but happiness on this day. there's really nothing to describe it better than happy, go lucky day. everyone always has a blast. for this to happen, it's just, you know, just awful. >> taylor, landes, thank you so much for joining us. >> caller: thank you. joining us now, steve. steve, you are the only one i know at msnbc who has run that marathon. we were just talking with taylor landes about what it means. you grew up in the area. >> patriots day is the essence of boston. it's simultaneously this world class event. you have the best athletes in the worldcoming into the city. at the same time, a quirky parochial thing that the rest of the country is working on

patriots day. >> it's hard to explain why you have a holiday on that day. >> not just a holiday -- >> my cousins were always jealous if they didn't get the day off school. >> day off, it was the kick off of the week. patriots day, the experience -- i say i ran the marathon, i jumped in after heart break hill. i wanted the experience of running the last five or six miles of the race. >> it's more than i have done. >> you are on beacon street, you go over the mass pike, a slight hill, it's a slow decent into kenmore square. you have all these fans from fenway park that flooded out and con agr congregating there. >> it's timed so people are leaving fenway park to cheer on the winners of the marathon,

which they did today. >> just as they were coming through. i got a little of it. but i could see it in the runners around me. you get to kenmore square and the whole world is waiting for you. it starts the last mile of the race or so. you have these people that made it 25 miles at that point. they have spent months and years training for this. the crowd to mass avenue, the crowd carries you for the last mile of that race. there's a roar in kenmore and a roar on boylston street. for the average runner, if you grew up in boston or new england, this is the ultimate achievement for them to run 26.2 miles with athletes aspiring to world records. >> we are watching the history of boston come together. the first boston marathon in 1887. we are seeing people involved in that marathon today being brought to a hospital founded in

1811, massachusetts general. we are watching this city bring its assets together in a crisis in a trauma and trying to move forward. they certainly do have all the equipment they need to get through what's coming. but it's hard to believe what they have been through already today. >> no, i mean, absolutely. my first thought when this, you know, my cousin actually works in the hotel across the street from where the second explosion was. i have some friends up there, you know, for the marathon or the red sox game. everybody else with family and friends there, you think of them and how they are doing. you talk to them throughout the day and everybody i know is okay, thank goodness. >> i spent a couple hours today tracking people down, tracking down cousins and gradually, they all came in.

one relative lives very, very close to the scene of this bombing today. so, i think that's been true for a lot of people. they have been texting and checking. the cell phones were down in boston for awhile. i couldn't get people on the phone there because their cell phones weren't working in those area codes. >> texting was the way. you are thinking of people you haven't seen or talked to in a couple years and you want to reach out and get the i'm okay. i had a few of those e-mails today. never felt so good to hear that response. >> yeah, i think when the cell systems did reopen, there was a flood or those. i started to hear from more people the i'm okay signs kept coming through. steve, thank you very much for joining me on this difficult night. our live coverage of the bombing in boston continues now with rachel maddow.